Source

Purpose

In the new UK political landscape with a greater focus on efficiency, productivity and effectiveness expenditure on services will increasingly be judged in terms of the contribution they make to improving the outcomes that matter to local people: health and wellbeing, the local economy, community safety and a general sense of satisfaction with where people live.

This document is intended to serve three primary purposes:

To provide a platform of evidence for all types of green space services at the local level, raising awareness of the inherently unique contribution that they make to the social, environmental and economic fabric of our towns and cities.

to provide the organisations that manage parks and green spaces teams with a framework for applying this evidence to enable them to position and make the case for the contribution that the service can make to local outcomes in order for them to collaborate more effectively during this period of unprecedented financial difficulty .

To generate greater understanding of the unique contribution that community management of green spaces can make in developing a sense of ownership and community engagement.

Evidence

This document outlines in the broadest sense the wide range of green spaces – from parks and gardens to city farms, country parks, woodlands and wildlife sites to play areas, allotments to urban plazas – and the range of benefits they bring, whether provided and managed by statutory agencies, local authorities or by community led and managed groups such as community gardens or “Friends Of” groups.
It suggests that the benefits of green space provide a very cost effective means of promoting health and well-being, as well as a mechanism for increasing community and citizen involvement in volunteering. Imaginative use of green space also provides in many cases an excellent Social Return on Investment whilst increasing individual and community engagement.